These guys can barely wipe their own arses. Forget about it.
SunWuKong Writers Consultants
Our team has experience consulting on the writing of:
*Academic papers (including SSCI publications)
*Non-academic writing (including fiction developmental editing)
*Curriculum design (including ESL materials)
So how do these guys even graduate high school in taiwan if they can’t even write well in Chinese?
Yes, but that depends entirely on how you market things. Uni President makes drinks, chips, microwave meals and glass cosmetic jars. The idea for most is umbrella company with brands underneath but that is for each to decide their own strategy. I would say a company specializing in academia editing with a card and.company header looks better than “freelancer”. with a company, you are freelancing, but with a better title. Kind of being married or having a boyfriend/girlfriend. same thing usually, but one is taken more seriously by most.
How does one fail grade school in Taiwan? 
So why are people spending 16 hours a day going to school if it was that easy?
Shite school system, cheating on the exams? You tell me.
16 hours a day to learn how to pass an exam but learn nothing.
The culture seems about hours spent with bums in seats, and scores on tests that might be useless. If you think spending 16 hours a day in school necessarily means anything, you’re wrong
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This isn’t what I observed. I mean I see many people perfectly able to function in society and write coherent papers in Chinese, so they’re clearly able to function. I mean otherwise society would have collapsed if a significant number of people can barely write.
But what most taiwanese aren’t is native English speakers. They should forget trying to publish papers in English and just publish papers in their native language and have it translated to English instead.
Their Chinese writing ability and ability to arrange their thoughts are insufficient to write an academic paper. All they’re good for is playing games on their phone.
They don’t have much choice. Things may change in a few decades, but for the moment most journals of any real international significance are written in English, and they need to publish in English for their careers. If they just write in Chinese, few people outside China and Taiwan will read it.
Translation would be a bit dodgy I think.
That’s what I’ve heard from some translators too, but didn’t want to say it because I can’t judge for myself how they write in Chinese.
I like the name, though I don’t have experience with SSCI publications and if all the writing in Taiwan is as bad as you say it could be awhile before I’m handed something worthy of getting in a proper journal.
Still, I would feel less confident hiring that company for my publication/school/book because they look like their focus is spread too thin. And indeed, that might be a problem. I think I’d at least drop curriculum design for now.
I’m not a Uni President quite yet. They started in one field and grew.
I agree fully, but it’s a long road to getting started and I don’t think the time is right now. I’m worried now about making, at minimum, what I’m making now. As it is, it’s likely I’ll have to take at least a part-time job at first. Aside from startup costs, even the cost of a virtual office would be too much unless I’m earning enough to justify it. But, long-term goal, that’s the ideal.
People here are generally literate, sure. When you talk about academic papers, that’s a bit different from a sign saying not to shit in the toilet.
Impact factor, peer review, etc., work based on a common language. Nobody wants to publush on Chinese journals because most of the world doesn’t read them, so it doesn’t help the academic. The most widely read journals in the world are all English, and unlikely to publish translations of things already published elsewhere.
They can write it in Chinese then publish the translation, and get a proper translation too. If their career depends on it they should have it translated correctly. You cant express your thoughts coherently if you are not a native English speaker.
This was just an example, please feel free to edit as appropriate!
Not all, and not me. Here I don’t do editing work, except for a few writing classes where I tell them what and how to write
Up to you, it is your business. As long as you get enough customers with a narrow offering it doesn’t matter.
I’m told Wallace does that. They have translators who translate texts into English, then hand it over to a native speaker to edit.
Off topic, I read some sci-fi and a lot of short story publications are using translated Asian content. Very off topic, Clarksworld stopped accepted submissions because it was getting a flood of poorly written stories from ChatGPT. “Influencers” were to blame.
Aside from local editing agencies, there are also international agencies that might be options, such as Catcus/Editage. I don’t know much about them, but might not hurt to widen the net in your job search. If you do focus on biomedical science, medical writing for a medical communications agency might also be an option. Freelance or possibly remote.
I don’t see that happening. I don’t even have a PhD, just a masters.
Because few want to pay the going rate to get that done properly. A qualified translator is making significantly more than a qualified editor … and cha bu duo is good enough anyways.
I once offered to go through my uni’s (English) website [decent school located in Taoyuan] because I was embarrased by what was posted there (I was working there FT and had done my MA there). I did get a meeting with the “higher-ups” to discuss it. First, it was “too expensive” even though price was never discussed. The second reason alluded to was more telling though: someone related to the school president had already done a perfect job on the material posted.